Subject & Study Guides: Literature Review Guide: Picking your research question and searching

Picking your research question and searching

Picking your Research Topic
Searching with keywords

Define your research question
Defining your research question is the key to beginning, so while you may be clear on the area you want to study, chances are there are some nuances that you need to think through.

Part of this process may require exploratory searching in databases so that you can see what's already been published on your topic. Even if it's a new area, it's likely something has already been published in at least an adjacent area of study.

Some things to consider:

What is my central question or issue that the literature can help define?
What is already known about the topic?
Is the scope of the literature being reviewed wide or narrow enough?
Is there a conflict or debate in the literature?
What connections can be made between the texts being reviewed?
What sort of literature should be reviewed? Historical? Theoretical? Methodological? Quantitative? Qualitative?
What criteria should be used to evaluate the literature being reviewed?
How will reviewing the literature justify the topic I plan to investigate?
From University of Texas Libraries

Performing a Keyword search in library databases:

Sample research topic: The effect of supplements on athletic performance.

Step 1: Identify the concepts in your research topic: In this case 'Supplement' is one concept and 'Athletic performance' is another separate concept
Step 2: Identify Keywords for these concepts: In this case use the concepts themselves as keywords and also other synonyms (words that mean the same), so for example, Supplement OR anti-oxidant OR vitamin AND "Athletic performance" OR "Sport performance"
Step 3: Search college databases using these keywords using the connector 'AND' between them:
Step 4: Look at relevant articles and look at the keyword and subjects listed in these, to find more relevant Keywords you can use: In this case examples of further relevant keywords might be "Nutrition Support" or "Dietary supplement" or Ergogenic aids AND "Sports competition" or "Exercise test" or "sports ability"
Step 5: Use 'Limiters' in the database, such as 'Date' limiters or language limiter or Subject limiter to improve and refine your search
Step 6: If necessary use other search aides; such as truncation * or phrase searching (see the 'Search strategies and databases' tab - 'Search aids...' sub-tab for more information).

Overview Note:
If you are using a single search box then each separate search concept needs to be in brackets e.g. ("Sport* performance" OR "Exercise test") AND ("nutrition support" OR supplement OR Vitamin)
Its OK to use Google scholar but you will get a lot more full text relevant articles using the Discover search tool on the library main page or use specific search databases on such as SPORTDiscus from the library database web-page.